As a customary tradition where former village mayors have their portraits hung in village hall after their term has concluded, former Mayor of Floral Park Dominick Longobardi unveiled his at the village’s most recent board meeting.
“Each preceding mayor had unique challenges that they all met and exceeded,” Floral Park Mayor Kevin Fitzgerald said. “Mayor Longobardi’s terms were no different and like his immediate predecessor, Mayor Tweedy, he had numerous challenges that he had to face from outside the village and what I would describe as not Business As Usual. In fact I think it would be difficult for another village in New York State to have faced and met so many challenges in the last six years while ensuring the efficient operation of a village with the scope of services that Floral Park provides.”
One of the major challenges Longobardi faced while mayor was the Belmont Park Arena project, which borders the village’s West End.
“Mayor Longobardi from someone who experienced most if not all of the trials, tribulations and most importantly successes during your terms, thank you for all of the time and sacrifices that you made to ensure our village remains the great place to live, work and raise a family. I know when future generations see your picture, history will reflect very positively on the accomplishments you made in light of the many obstacles that were thrown in front of you.”
Trustee Lynn Pombonyo added, “Tonight we are here to celebrate a very special event—Mayor Longobardi’s or Dominick’s—return to village hall in both two and three-dimensional form. It is a blessing to look at all these great portraits displayed around this room.”
Longobardi thanked everyone who attended in part saying, “Nothing got done because of what I did; it was what we all did together. It’s still that way. This village is going to go on and it’s going to be great. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for giving me the opportunity to do this. Sometimes we had some bad times and aggravation, but most of the time we’ve had a lot of fun and a lot of successes because we all did it together.”
